Unity 2012

What a historic UNITY Convention it was in Las Vegas! This was my fourth UNITY, but definitely my most memorable. First of all, I have to say I missed my friends from the National Association of Black Journalists. There was electricity in the air at this UNITY 2012, but NABJ’s absence was felt since they parted ways last year.

Opening night was emotional. On stage, UNITY President Joanna Hernandez said to NABJ that UNITY would “welcome you back with open arms.” While NABJ was for the most part invisible, the National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association was warmly welcomed into the fold. The UNITY family however dropped the extended part of the name “Journalists of Color”.

To kick off UNITY, a plenary of journalists representing each journalism association talked about the challenges of diversity in the media from the past, present, and future of our changing industry. One guest, sports columnist LZ Granderson, both a member of NABJ and NLGJA ended up getting into a heated debate  after the event with NABJ’s President and Vice President. Granderson had told the crowd about being both gay and black that “diversity is more than skin.”

LZ Granderson and NABJ leaders

The public disagreement was just one example of the passion and the pain still stirring after the changes of UNITY following the split of NABJ and addition of NGLJA.

While UNITY has morphed in the past year, social media has changed the flavor of UNITY this time around, “tweeting” in particular. Controversy was the talk of the convention when a student UNITY reporter was told she could not “tweet” at a National Association of Hispanic Journalists board meeting. The incident made big news at the convention, putting NAHJ in the spotlight and a “tweeting” policy that was spoken but not written.

NAHJ had already been experiencing high emotion during a heated election that at times was explosive on social media especially in the presidential race. Elections results were released Friday night at the NAHJ Gala, naming Hugo Balta as the new NAHJ President. Also, SPJ Diversity Committee Vice Chairman Rebecca Aguilar was elected NAHJ Vice President of Online.

New NAHJ President, Hugo Balta

At Balta’s very first board meeting, a motion made by Aguilar to repeal the the “No Tweet” policy was passed in a 6-5 vote.

UNITY has changed as the media industry has changed trying to keep up with the public’s hunger to communicate on the web. One thing hasn’t changed though: the need to keep the pressure on for diversity in those newsrooms. I was glad to see companies were hiring, and I hope the healing process continues within UNITY, and that soon NABJ will return.

While five words from Anderson Cooper– “The fact is, I’m gay” — have made the headlines the last 24 hours, it’s actually the report , which sparked the e-mail exchange between the CNN Anchor and  Blogger Andrew Sullivan, that warrants a closer look.

I’m glad I picked up a copy of Entertainment Weekly last week when I saw the pictures of eight celebrities and the headline “The New Art of Coming Out.”

The Article That Started It All

The lead writer, Mark Harris, did an excellent job of explaining what goes into a celebrity’s decision to “go public” about his/her sexual orientation.

Harris and three other reporters, Melissa Maerz, Muzhat Naaren and Adam Vary, provided example after example of the struggle that some film and television stars have had with the decision, even to the point of not wanting to provide a comment for this latest story.

Until this week, I, personally, was not familiar with the term “glass closet”– a term for when one’s homosexuality was common knowledge in the entertainment industry, in the press and among gay people, but an individual never says anything specific about it.

The article places this entire discussion into some historical context, while also drawing out a key point– pop culture’s ability to shift the national mood. The timeline that appears in the print edition is awesome.

My intent in purchasing the magazine was to have students in my Race, Gender and Media class read it as part of our unit on “Sexual orientation and media.”       But, given the insights it provides, the story and the timeline that accompanies it could be a teaching tool for any journalist wanting to know how to cover gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender sources.

It goes beyond just asking “is the source’s sexual orientation relevant for the story?”

Courtesy:CNN

Anderson Cooper’s e-mail

Reaction to last week’s  Entertainment Weekly cover story and its mention of a New York Times television critic’s decision to challenge Cooper on not talking about his love life in launching his syndicated talk show was the reason Sullivan e-mailed the CNN anchor in the first place.

It’s interesting to note the New York Times critic wasn’t the only writer to reference Cooper’s lack of disclosure.  Entertainment Weekly writer Tim Stack also made reference to the same lack of disclosure (apparently now known as “the glass closet”).

“There’s no clarity, however, on whether Cooper will address the one topic many people want him to talk about: his personal life,” Stack wrote in the article published last August.

As a result of this latest special report, Cooper has addressed it directly, but also made a statement in his e-mail to Andrew Sullivan that has been under-reported

“I’ve always believed that who a reporter votes for, what religion they are, who they love, should not be something they have to discuss publicly,” Cooper wrote. “As long as a journalist shows fairness and honesty in his or her work, their private life shouldn’t matter.”

I happen to agree with that point.  But, there’s more to the e-mail that is equally important

“In a perfect world, I don’t think it’s anyone else’s business, but I do think there is value in standing up and being counted,” Cooper also wrote in the same e-mail.   “I’m not an activist, but I am a human being and I don’t give that up by being a journalist.”

In many ways, like President Obama’s position on same-sex marriage was evolving,  Anderson Cooper’s position on journalists’ and public figures’ disclosure of their sexual orientation was ALSO evolving.

Thanks to Entertainment Weekly’s reporting  and Andrew Sullivan’s blog post,  we see the impact of this evolution and have learned some lessons on how to reflect this aspect diverse world in which we live.

George L. Daniels is an associate professor of journalism at The University of Alabama and past chairman of the SPJ Diversity Committee.  He’s currently a member of the SPJ National Board of Directors.

I’m wondering how Anderson Cooper of CNN is feeling today. Now that he has told The Daily Beast that he is gay.  Is it a pressure off his back?  I was a television reporter 27 years, and I’ve always believed in being an open book.

Why? Because I expect it from people I interview. I’m a public figure who has chosen to be on television. I don’t want people to think I have something to hide; if I put out that message, they could hide stuff from me.

I always thought Cooper didn’t admit he was gay, because he was afraid his bosses wouldn’t like it and his viewers wouldn’t be too keen about it either.  And when I kept hearing that he wanted to “keep part of his life private” I thought there is no such thing when you’re on television, especially in TV news.

Thank you Anderson Cooper for just putting it out there in The Daily Beast “The Fact Is, I’m Gay.” He says he came out because he didn’t want people to think he was ashamed or hiding something.  I hate to admit it, but that’s what I thought, that he was hiding something.

Anderson Cooper today is showing the public, especially those afraid to come out; that it’s OK to say proudly “I’m gay.”  He’s also showing others in the news business, that yes, journalists can be gay and fair at the same time.

Is he any different today than he was yesterday? No. Can he still cover gay issues fairly? Of course!  In the end, he’s a journalist; a man trusted for  his honesty and hard work.

Rebecca Aguilar is an Emmy award winning freelance reporter based in Dallas, TX.  She’s also the vice chair of SPJ Diversity Committee, a board member with National Association of Hispanic Journalists and SPJ-Fort Worth Chapter.